Personal Parallel
by merciful-malice
Summary: A oneshot. Naruto enjoys ramen and training in the backyard on a beautiful afternoon. Written as a parallel hence title to Personal Revelations. See inside for details...Rated for some language and implied homosexuality...


After posting Personal Revelations – which will likely forever stay a oneshot (sorry DLH, deal with it…) I got a review which wondered about Naruto. PR was about Sasuke, but the review brought up a valid point, I didn't actually say much about Naruto. Therefore, I've written this. It takes place at exactly the same time as PR, but from Naruto's perspective. Read them in whatever order, or at all, I do not care.

This story was more or less written for MicKEy ML (hope I got that right).

Same deal as last time, here goes nothing. Implied homosexuality. Deal with it. Sorry to the YAOI fans, nobody gets it on.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto placed the take out from Ichiraku's on the picnic table that had begun to splinter, its maroon paint chipping. With a deep sigh, he peeled off his shirt. The ramen within the bag was still too hot to ingest.

He forced himself to walk away from the bag, deciding this was a good chance to try out a training technique suggested to him by Rock Lee. Fight while temptation not to fight stared at you from the side lines. He had said something about improving his focus and probably his will power.

Passing through the opening in the fence that separated his yard from that of his neighbour – his best friend, Uchiha Sasuke – with his arms behind his head, Naruto smiled happily. It was harder to see the delicious food awaiting him from here.

First he stretched on the perfectly manicured lawn that seemed to reflect Sasuke's perfect life. Naruto had to admit – though never out loud – he was a little jealous. Where his friend had succeeded at everything, Naruto had captured only one dream, that of becoming Hokage.

He had never attained Sakura's affection, but he had readily settled for her friendship. She had even tried to set him up on dates, but it never felt quite right. Last weekend for example, he had taken Hinata out as planned by Sakura.

Sure, the pearly eyed girl had looked really pretty, but something had weighed down his mind the whole time. Fortunately, she seemed to understand even when he didn't and had bid him a shy good night before wishing him happiness. He hadn't seen her since then.

That was fine though, because who needed a girlfriend when he was living right next door to his best friend? After all, Sasuke was the only person who he really enjoyed spending any time with… well, and maybe Sakito.

With the sun shining down brightly upon him, more blinding then the smiles of Maito Gai and his clone combined, Naruto swung his leg up high, striking the face of the attack dummy he had chosen to take his secret frustrations out upon.

From the corner of his eye, he could see Sasuke brooding up in his kitchen window. Pausing to take a closer look, Naruto examined his friend. The Uchiha's eyes appeared closed and he looked deep in thought.

Skin so pale and like porcelain, anyone who hadn't known anything of Sasuke might assume he'd never gone outside. Silky, black, hair contrasting beautifully… Wait, _beautifully_? Naruto shook his head. Guys were supposed to only say that sort of stuff about girls.

Immersing himself in his training, he forced his mind to be clear. He was probably just going insane because the ramen was trying to seduce him away from his exercise.

After another ten minutes, he grew bored of training alone. He could go and ask Sasuke to join him, but that felt weird after what he had thought earlier.

Instead he opted to grab the ramen and sit in a comfortable silence with his inanimate training partner.

Delighted with the distraction of the food, he completely forgot his earlier awkwardness and set his mind on waiting for Sakito to come home. They'd conjure up a real good prank and maybe he'd train with him for a while.

Naruto had no kids of his own, so what was wrong with borrowing the offspring of other people? Nothing, exactly.

He groaned. It was Thursday. Ino and Shikamaru would be bringing their kid over so Sasuke's children would be too busy to hang out with him. Suddenly, he missed Konohamaru even more than ever before.

Looking up through his bangs, he spotted Sasuke looking at him. Deep, intense eyes watching him. Naruto waved, but Sasuke had been distracted by something else. A pang of sadness stabbed at the blonde.

He frowned as Sasuke left the window, missing the older boy's eyes on him. Wait… He missed that creepy doll looking at him? No way, that was just crazy talk. He was just hungry.

Downing more of the cup noodle he looked up at the window again, waiting for Sasuke to return.

He didn't.

Not that it mattered or anything. It's not like he loved Sasuke or anything… And even if he did, the older boy obviously didn't feel the same. He had a wife and children so there was no way he was…

Naruto looked at his now empty ramen cup in defeat. No ramen and no Sasuke made Naruto a sad man.

Wait again… What was wrong with his head? Why were his thoughts so messed up?

He threw one final look at the empty window, where the Uchiha man had been and he started to wonder something about himself.

"Oh shit…" he trailed off before moving to get up and go inside.

* * *

There you have it. Naruto's parallel. I didn't think he'd be as quick to put two and two together as Sasuke. I also wanted to get across how he his life had come to almost completely revolve around Sasuke's. Hopefully, this was worth your read… Let me know what you think, or don't, that's fine.

Naito


End file.
